ment of Foot, and inember of Parliament for Tregony, 1774. He died September 6th, 1791, having married in May, 1782, Lady Cottrell Dormer, relict of Sir Cottrell D. and daughter and heir of

Cesar.

His Lordship's Lady, who was endowed with all virtues, deceased on June 4th, 1753. She ordered her body not to be dres sed in linen and laces, but in woollen; and instead of velvet, her coffin to be covered with cloth; and that the expense saved by it should go to the clothing of some of her poor neighbours. Accordingly thirty poor women were put into mourning, who walked in procession at her funeral, and before it had a repast at Shirburn, in Oxfordshire, where she was privately interred, and each of them, at their going home, received a half-peck loaf. His Lordship, in November 1757, married Dorothy, daughter of Nesbit, but died without any issue by her on March 17th, 1764; and was buried at Shirbourne; and she died July 14th, 1779.

THOMAS, THIRD EARL OF MACCLESFIELD, was born on October 12th, 1723, was chosen one of the members for Newcastleunder-Line, to the Parliament summoned in 1747. He was returned for the county of Oxford in 1754, and for the city of Rochester in 1761. His Lordship was LL.D. Fellow of the Royal Society; and on December 12th, 1749, married his cousin Mary, eldest daughter of Sir William Heathcote, of Hursley, in Hampshire, Bart. by which Lady he had two sons :

1. George, present Earl,

2. Thomas Parker, who was originally in the Foot Guards; and in the late war raised and commanded the Oxfordshire Regiment of Fencible Cavalry. He married, first, on March 16th, 1796, Miss Edwards, daughter of Lewis Edwards, Esq. of Ludlow; and by her, who is deceased, had a daughter, born in 1797. He married, secondly, March 19th, 1807, Eliza, youngest daughter of William Breton Wolstenholme, Esq. of Holly-hill, in Sussex (one of the sons of the late Eliab Breton, of Forty-hill, in Middlesex; and Norton, in Northamptonshire, Esq.)

And three daughters: 1. Lady Elizabeth, born June 29th, 1751, married, November 16th, 1773, John Fane, Esq. of Wormsley, in Oxfordshire, and has a numerous issue.

2. Lady Mary, born March 27th, 1753.

3. Lady Anne, died in 1774.

His Lordship died February 9th, 1795, leaving a character for eminent acquirements in science.

He was succeeded by his son and heir, GEORGE, FOURTH EARL

OF MACCLESFIELD, born February 24th, 1755. He was a Lord of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales: elected 1790, M. P. for Minehead; made Comptroller of his Majesty's Household, 1791, which he held till 1797. His Lordship was appointed Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, June 24th, 1804. He is High Steward of Henley, LL.D. and F. R. S.

His Lordship married May 25th, 1780, Mary Frances, daughe ter and coheir of Thomas Drake, D. D. Rector of Amersham, Bucks, by whom he has had issue a son, George, who died an infant, and an only daughter, Maria, born Jan. 23d, 1781, and married, November 13th, 1802, Lord Binning, only son of Charles Earl of Haddington.

Titles. George Parker, Earl of Macclesfield, Viscount Parker, and Baron Parker of Macclesfield.

Creations. Baron Parker, of Macclesfield, in Cheshire, March 10th, 1715-16, 2 Geo. I.; Viscount Parker, of Ewelne, in Oxfordshire, and Earl of Macclesfield, November 5th, 1721, 8 Geo. I.

Arms. Gules, a Chevron between three leopards faces, Or. Crest. On a wreath a leopard's head erased and guardant, Or, ducally gorged, Gules.

Supporters. Two leopards, reguardant, proper, each gorged with a ducal coronet, Gules.

Motto. SAPERE AUDE.

Chief Seat. At Shirburne-Castle, in the county of Oxford.

THAT the name of this family was anciently wrote Ricards, alias Fermour, appears as well from other authorities, as from the last will and testament of THOMAS Ricards, alias Fermour; whose mother was the daughter and heir of the family of Fermour; and his father, Ricards, of Welch extraction, by tradition in the family. In the said will, dated a September 9th, 1485, he is wrote Thomas Ricards, alias Fermour, senior, of Whitney, in Oxfordshire; and thereby orders his body to be buried in the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, in the church of Whitney, and bequeaths 201. to the altar in the chancel of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in that church, for his tithes forgotten. He also bequeaths to the building of the isle of the Blessed Mary Magdalen in the said church, called Carsewell Isle, 201. To Emmotte his wife, he bequeaths 2001. with his goods and utensils in his house at Whitney. To William, his son, 200 marks, and all his lands in the villages of Cogges and Burford. To Laurence, his son, 200 marks, and all his lands in Chadlington. To Richard, his son, 200 marks, and all his lands in Filkingre and Langford. To Alice, John, and Elizabeth Wenman, children of Emmotte, his spouse, by Henry Wenman, to their marriages, 101. 7s. And the rest of his goods, lands, &c. till his sons come to the age of twenty-one years, he bequeaths to Emmotte, his wife, whom he constitutes executrix, and Sir Richard Harcourt, Knight, supervisor.

He soon after departed this life, as appears by the probate of the said will, dated November 8th, following. By Alice his first

a Ex Regist. in Cur. Prærog. Cant. vocat. Logge, q. 18.

"

wife, he had issue LAURENCE, his son and heir, who was of Minster-Lovel, in Oxfordshire, aud had a son, WILLIAM, who died without issue, and a daughter, Mary, married to Thomas Benolt, Clarencieux King of Arms.

Emmotte, his second wife, who survived him, was widow of Henry Wenman, daughter and heir of Simkin Hervey, of Herefordshire, Esq. and by her he had issue,

1. Richard, ancestor to the present Earl of Pomfret; and

2. William, Clerk of the Crown, who was seated at the fair house and lordship of Summerton, upon the river Cherwel, in Oxfordshire, and having married four wives, left no issue male; and at his death, bequeathed all his lands to Thomas, the second son of his brother Richard, whose posterity remain the worthy possessors of it to this day, although they have removed their habitation to Tusmore, three miles distant from it.

The said William lies buried in a chapel on the south-side of the chancel of Summerton, under a great raised monument of grey marble, whereon lies the portraitures of a gentleman and his wife, in brass, and under them this inscription:

Here lyeth buried Mr. William Fermour, Esq. whych was born of this Towne and Patrone of this Churche, and also Clarke of the 'Crowne in the King's Bench in King Henry the 7th and King Henry the 8 Dayes, whyche died the 20th Day of 7ber in the Year of our Lord God a MCCCCCLII: and also here lyeth Mestres Elizabeth Fermour, his last Wyffe, which was the Daughter of S' Will Norrysse, Knight, upon whose and all Christene Soules Thu have mercy.

And at Horne Church, in Essex, was the following inscription for another of his wives.

Here lyeth Katherin the daughter of Sir William Powlet, Knyght, wyf of William Fermour, clarke of the crown. Who died May 26, the second of Henry the eighte,

RICHARD Fermour, his brother, having been bred a merchant of the staple of Calais, raised a noble fortune, and settled himself at Eston-Neston juxta Towcester, in Northamptonshire, which, together with the hundred and manor of Towcester, he had purchased, as also many fair lands and royalties in that county; at

Visitation of Shropshire, M. S.

which seat he lived many years with great splendor and hospitality. But being a very zealous Romanist, and not complying with the frequent alterations in religion, introduced by Henry VIII. he changed his hospitality into charity for those of his opinion; and fell under that King's heavy displeasure, for conveying relief to one Nicholas Thayne, formerly his Confessor, and at that time a close prisoner in the gaol of Buckingham, although nothing was ever legally proved against him, except that he had sent him 8 d. and a couple of shirts. But his great wealth, and Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex, the King's Vicar-General, were powerful incentives to his ruin; and being found guilty of a præmunire, his whole estate, both real and personal, was seized on for the King's use; and executed with such strictness and severity, that nothing was left him or his family.

One of our historians, living in that age, writes, that he was a rich and wealthy man, and of a good estimation in the city, but for relieving certain traitorous persons, who denied the King's supremacy, he was committed to the Marshalsea, in July 1540, and after, in Westminster-Hall, was arraigned, and attainted in a præmunire, and lost all his estate.

The good old man, when he was stript of all he had, retired to a village called Wapenham, in sight of his former habitations, and lived in the parsonage house there; the advowson of which had been in his gift, and the parson thereof presented by him. There he passed several years with a most consummate piety, and entire resignation, till 1550.

In the time of his prosperity he had in his family, according to the custom of the age, a servant, WILL SOMERS, who, by his witty or frothy discourses, past for his JESTER; and afterwards served the king himself in the same office and capacity. This man remembering with some gratitude his first master, and having admission to the King at all times and places, especially when sick, melancholy, and towards his end, let fall some lucky words, which awakened the King's conscience, so as at least to endeavour a restitution; and accordingly he gave immediate orders about it; but being prevented by death, it was never effectually performed till the 4th year of Edward VI. by letters patent, bearing that date but so miserably lopt and torn, by the several grants and sales made by the Crown during the aforesaid interval, that

:

c Stow's Ann. edit. 1614. p. 580.

Hall, in his Life of K. Henry VIII. fol. 142.